By Zephyria 
How long has it been since I’ve been so completely overwhelmed by helplessness? Like the protagonist in a fairy tale who finally reached a happy ending after endless trials and tribulations, the two people in front of me were embracing each other with emotional faces.
“After letting you go like that that day, I don’t know how much I resented my weak self. If I could die instead, I would have done it a hundred times, a thousand times. I couldn’t even feel sorry. Because I didn’t even know your name.”
“Don’t say that. I’m just so glad you’re safe. I was most worried that I would never see you again when I jumped off the cliff, leaving you alone, Young Master……”
Everyone surrounding the two like an audience couldn’t follow the flow of the conversation that Carlisle and Allen were having and had bewildered expressions, but only I could understand. This was… The story of the day when the Crown Prince shook the restless forces of the north and they invaded Graham Castle, the day I left him as a child and jumped off the cliff… That very story.
But, how? Allen, how could he really know the circumstances of the incident that neither the Crown Prince nor Grand Duke Graham knew properly?
“Since when have I been the Little Duke of Graham… No, it doesn’t matter. It’s enough that you’re just alive.”
“Young Master…!”
“Please forgive me for asking now. Carlisle of Graham asks for the name of his benefactor.”
Carlisle knelt down on one knee in front of him as if he was trying to raise Allen’s prestige in front of everyone. Even the murmurs of what the two of them were in relation to each other stopped. The Banquet Hall, where even the faintly flowing music had stopped, was indescribably silent. My name is… Allen whispered weakly, and before finally parting his lips. He glanced back at me once.
“Allen. Allen Hamilton.”
“I see. That’s the name of the person I’ve been yearning for so much.”
“Have you… Missed me a lot?”
“Yes. So deeply that you can’t even imagine.”
His noble voice spoke seriously as if he was making an oath of allegiance. I wanted to jump between the two of them right now and shout that you missed me, don’t believe a word of that liar, and I could provide as much objective evidence as possible that Allen could never be the one he missed because Allen had just entered the mansion in the capital as a servant when I was meeting him in the north.
But…….
‘While watching me willingly put up with it until now, have you been enjoying yourself enough?’
‘…….’
‘I hope so. Now it’s my turn.’
Allen’s voice, who couldn’t hide the giggling that he was so happy about, was clearly replayed in my head. The fact that I couldn’t move at all as if I was under a spell after being caught in Allen’s grip, and Andrew’s hazy eyes, who showed an unusual appearance and didn’t even properly grasp his own condition, randomly came to mind and disappeared.
I could instinctively tell. Objective evidence that could prove the truth would be of no use in attacking Allen now.
“Young Master, shall we talk somewhere where it’s just the two of us for a while?”
“Ah. Let’s do that.”
“Just a moment, Young Master. Brother Noah. You can go back first today.”
Allen, who had his arm around Carlisle as if it was natural, turned to look at me, and Carlisle’s eyes turned to me once again. As if he hadn’t even realized that I had been here with him until now. Just a few minutes ago, those serious eyes were straight at me. It was definitely a hand that was extended towards me.
“…Is that your brother?”
“Greetings next time. Let’s go quickly. There are so many things I want to say.”
The gaze and expression that indifferently passed me by melted so warmly when it reached Allen that it was unbelievable. It wasn’t even despairing. This was closer to extreme fear. The fact that everything I believed I had built up solidly… Was nothing more than a castle on the sand was realized too clearly.
“……Hmm.The Crown Prince’s eyes, who had been watching a scene from a cliché play created by the three of us, or rather, Allen and Carlisle, narrowed as if he was displeased, but I didn’t even have the luxury to notice that now.
I suppressed the urge to scream and just stood in the corner of the hall until the Banquet was over. I wanted to run away anywhere.
System assures you that it will send you anywhere if you want to run away, so don’t worry.
Would you like to start all the play from the beginning again?
But within this world, there was nowhere I could run away from Allen.
That fixed truth pushed me into an abyss of despair. I felt suffocated in a different sense than before.
“Oh my, how wonderfully you’ve grown.”
“Not at all, Countess.”
“If you’re a friend of our Allen, you’re like my own child. Please visit often while you’re in the capital.”
“If it’s not a nuisance… I will.”
A smile bloomed brightly on the Countess’s face for the first time in a while. After it was revealed that Allen Hamilton was the first love that Little Duke Graham had been longing for so much, who had been separated by an accident and thought to be dead, Allen’s social reputation finally stopped plummeting.
“Yes, how did you first meet our Allen? I wonder if the Grand Duke also knows about Allen.”
If he was a direct descendant of the Grand Duchy of Graham, 100 out of 100 would develop into an Alpha, so he would definitely become a picturesque pair with Allen, who was likely to develop into an Omega. Strictly speaking, the Little Duke was younger than Allen, but outwardly, the Little Duke looked older, so the age difference wouldn’t matter much. Even the fact that they would be celebrating the Day of Blessing around the same time seemed like fate. The Countess welcomed Carlisle Graham, whom she was meeting for the first time privately today, as if he was already her son-in-law.
“Aigoo, Mother, I’m embarrassed. Don’t keep asking……”
Allen blushed prettily and covered his face with both palms. A picturesque smile appeared on Carlisle and the Countess’s faces at the same time.
“Huh? Noah, doesn’t the tea suit your taste? You haven’t touched it at all. Shall I have them bring you something else?”
“Ah, no, Mother. It’s fine.”
Her gaze finally reached me, who had been guarding one side of the table like a sack of barley. I hurriedly waved my hand and brought the teacup I was only holding to my lips.
“Okay. If you need anything else, tell your mother anytime, okay?”
“Yes…”
A warm voice and attitude that seemed to melt away. They say you lose one thing and gain another. After Carlisle’s connection was snatched away from me right before my eyes in such an absurd way. As if she had never been hostile to me, the Countess regained her previous kind demeanor. How can a person be so cruelly transparent? She was particularly sensitive to the social reputation that was slipping away as she was compared to me because she was afraid that she would not be able to find a proper marriage partner for Allen. She said she would be happy to keep him for the rest of her life… but for the nobles of this world, a child who has not married by a certain age is simply unimaginable.
Seeing me with the position of Crown Princess neatly reserved, she resented the thought that the position could have been Allen’s, but then the Little Duke of the Grand Duchy of Graham, who was recognized as the number one groom by everyone except the Crown Prince, came rolling in on his own, so from her point of view, there was no need to worry about Allen’s social reputation anymore.
“But I’m so curious, can you tell me just a little bit? The Little Duke probably knows this, but… I haven’t had this precious child back for very long, so I’m just curious about what happened before he came back to our arms.”
“You can call me Carlisle comfortably, Countess.”
“Oh, how kind of you.”
I didn’t immediately run to Carlisle and explain that I was the person he missed so much, and that Allen was a fake. Allen said it clearly that day. ‘Now it’s my turn’…. I was wondering why I had been putting up with it all this time.
Especially the things I experienced with Carlisle in the North… It was an unprecedented event, so even if he had experienced the same Iteration as me, there was no way he could know… How could he know everything that happened between me and Carlisle and steal it so cleanly?
Rather than acting emotionally and rushing in rashly, I needed to watch and see how much Allen knew, and what kind of ability was behind that strange point that Allen was hiding from me in this Iteration.
“When I first met him… I wondered how there could be such a cheeky servant.”
“A cheeky servant? Allen, did you go all the way to the North to work as a servant?”
“Didn’t you know? When Young Master Hamilton, I mean, the third young master, came to the North for sightseeing. Allen came along as his exclusive servant.”
“That can’t be… Allen wasn’t even in the mansion back then…”
The peaceful conversation dragged on strangely. Like a tape in a cassette player that had become too hot, it dragged on and on.
“I guess… it’s better to cut this topic off. Again, again.”
Between the Countess and Carlisle, who had frozen with a smile on their faces, Allen muttered in a sigh as if he had a headache. Then, suddenly, our eyes met. His blue eyes smiled slyly.
“Ah. You saw?”
I got goosebumps.